The Coulson Women's Institute 2

CLARINGTON -- Anne Walker is a Pickering elementary teacher who will be in front of a group of not children but music and history lovers on June 20. And the story the singer/songwriter is telling with words, music, images and artifacts is one that applies to virtually every rural area in southern Ontario -- and beyond.
Walker's roots are in Coulson, a village near Orillia. Generations of her family have called it home and Coulson and her siblings still own the family farm there. The Coulson Women's Institute was a big part of life for women in the area in the last century and Walker has created songs for a musical presentation on the institute and the larger story it tells about how life changed in a rural Ontario village in the 20th century.
See The Coulson Women's Institute, 1927 to 2004 June 20 at Faith United Church, 1778 Nash Rd., Courtice.
"It's kind of a bittersweet story ... but there are lots of light moments in the show," she says. Walker, whose mother and other relatives were all members of the Coulson WI, says she'd already been "collecting this little group of songs on the side" about life in Coulson. But then she discovered in her mother's possessions minute books -- lots of them -- from institute meetings.
"As I read book after book through the decades ... and what they were up to, I realized the history of the institute was the history of the village," she says.
The Coulson WI met once a month from 1927 until 2004, when it disbanded. Walker says it was primarily formed for the improvement and education of rural women, who did community work, supported charities, made quilts and the like. She notes that women's institutes still exist, world-wide, and are very big in the United Kingdom. But it all started in Ontario in 1897, at a time when most rural people, men and women, didn't often stray far from the farm, and there was none of the instant communication technologies we take for granted today.
Walker notes Coulson WI ended simply because the young women in the community were not replacing the older women. And there was less need for such an organization, since social and community life had become more focused in the towns and cities, where many women worked.
Walker says she's been playing folk music for a while and released her first recording in the 1980s. Starting a family gave her more pressing priorities, but she released another recording in the 1990s and her last in 2008. With a bunch of new songs for the current show, she hopes to release another.
As for the songs, Walker says there are up-tempo and slower, more poignant ones, played by herself on guitar, and along with the music she's reading some excerpts from the Coulson WI meeting minute logs.
And people can see images and artifacts, including quilts made by the WI women.
Walker says the show is a good fit for the Courtice area and she's especially pleased to be bringing it there. Local women in the Maple Grove Women's Institute are involved. And she notes Courtice has moved much further down the road to urbanization than a place like Coulson, so older area residents will certainly be familiar with the story she tells.
As one can imagine, Walker's journey to creating her show was a deeply personal one that gave her a lot of satisfaction.
"It was very pleasurable; I felt like I was honouring the women of the past," she says.
Admission to the show is free, however freewill donations will be accepted for the R.S. McLaughlin Durham Regional Cancer Centre in Oshawa.
The show starts at 7 p.m. But arrive at 6:30 p.m. for coffee and dessert.
Visit Walker's website, www.annewalker.ca.

Mike Ruta covers the arts and entertainment for the Metroland Media Group’s Durham Region Division. He can be reached at
MRuta@durhamregion.com
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